At the outset of the U.S. Civil War, Mathew Brady dispatched a team of photographers to document the conflict. Among them was a Scottish-born immigrant named Alexander Gardner, the photographer who took this photo of Lincoln at Antietam as well as other famous wartime shots. The man to Lincoln's right is Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, whom Lincoln had as head of a personal security detail during the war. Gardner titled another shot of Pinkerton and his brother William at Antietam “The Secret Service ...

Approximately 4 million slaves were freed at the conclusion of the American Civil War. The stories of a few thousand have been passed on to future generations through word of mouth, diaries, letters, records, or written transcripts of interviews. Only 26 audio-recorded interviews of ex-slaves have been found, 23 of which are in the collections of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In this interview, 101-year-old Fountain Hughes recalls his boyhood as a slave, the Civil War, and life in the United States as an African American ...

In May 1863, U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton issued General Order Number 143 creating the Bureau of U. S. Colored Troops. This photograph shows an unidentified African American soldier in a Union uniform, with his wife in dress and hat, and two daughters wearing matching coats and hats. The image was found in Cecil County, Maryland, making it likely that this soldier belonged to one of the seven United States Colored Troop regiments raised in Maryland. The photograph is from the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs ...

This photograph shows a girl holding a framed image of her father. Judging from her necklace, mourning ribbons, and dress, it is likely that her father was killed in the war. The man in the portrait is recognizable as a Union cavalryman with a sword, wearing a Hardee hat (the regulation hat for enlisted men). The photograph is from the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. The collection includes more than 1,000 special portrait photographs, called ambrotypes and tintypes, representing both Union and ...

This photograph shows a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War (1861−65). He is identified as Private Henry Augustus Moore of Company F, 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Moore is wearing a grey coat with short, one-inch wide bars across the chest, a uniform based in part on regulations prescribed by the state of Mississippi. He holds a short artillery sword and a sign that reads “Jeff Davis and the South!” Jefferson Davis was a former senator from Mississippi who was inaugurated president of the Confederate States of America on ...

Rose O'Neal Greenhow was a spy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. As a young woman in Washington, she befriended many influential politicians, including President James Buchanan and South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, who played a role in shaping her dedication to the South. During the Civil War, Greenhow wrote ciphered (secret code) messages to the Confederates, providing information about Union military plans. Confederate President Jefferson Davis credited her with helping the South win the First Battle of Bull Run. Greenhow sent a message about Union ...

Initially, the Civil War between the North and the South was fought by the North to prevent the secession of the South and preserve the Union. Ending slavery was not a goal. That changed on September 22, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that slaves in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. One hundred days later Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas “are ...

This printed map by the Office of the Chief Engineer of the War Department details the fighting at the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. Named for the creek or “run” in northern Virginia along which the fighting took place, Bull Run was the first major battle of the American Civil War. After halting several attacks ordered by Union commander General Irvin McDowell, the Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard launched a successful counterattack that drove the tired and inexperienced Union forces back toward Washington. The failure of the ...

This document is a one-page handwritten copy of the Ordinance of Secession passed on January 10, 1861, by the members of the Florida Convention of the People (commonly referred to as the Secession Convention). Pursuant to an act of the Florida legislature approved on November 30, 1860, Governor Madison S. Perry issued a proclamation calling an election on Saturday, December 22, 1860, for delegates to a convention to address the issue of whether Florida had a right to withdraw from the Union. The Secession Convention met in Tallahassee on January ...

Reunions of Civil War veterans from both the North and South were a prominent feature of public life in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. This 1914 silent film records the meeting of 40,000 Confederate veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, nearly a half century after the end of the war. Titles are used to explain each sequence. The motion of the film is somewhat jerky but the quality of the images is good. Aging veterans dance to the music of two fiddlers and gather to ...

This Civil War souvenir print contains six views of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and of the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon in Philadelphia. The street addresses of both saloons are shown. The relief organization establishments, situated at the transportation hub between the North and South, provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to more than 1 million military personnel, sailors, refugees, and freedmen in the course of the war. The print features a large central view of the exterior of the Union saloon with troops arriving and entering ...

This Civil War fundraising certificate contains views of the exterior and interior of the volunteer hospital opposite the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad depot in Philadelphia. The hospital opened on September 5, 1862, and closed on August 11, 1865. During the American Civil War, the hospital provided care to the most seriously wounded before their reassignment to other hospitals. The exterior view shows civilians and a troop of Union soldiers standing in front of the hospital as a train arrives. The interior view shows rows of beds lining a central hallway. Women volunteers attend to bed-ridden soldiers and set a long table for a meal. The illustrations are framed by decorative motifs that include the seal of the city of Philadelphia; angels hovering above an able-bodied and an injured soldier in front of columns inscribed "The Glory of the Volunteer"; American flags; and floral elements. The work is by James Fuller Queen, a Philadelphia lithographer and pioneer chromolithographer. Queen served in the militia in 1862–63 and created several lithographs with Civil War subjects, including contribution certificates for the city's relief institutions.

In September–October 1862, Independence Square in Philadelphia became Camp Independence, a Civil War recruitment camp. This trade card, produced by the Children’s Central Clothing Emporium, shows well-dressed children on the central promenade of the square. Tents manned by soldiers line the promenade, and a group of children carrying drums, flags, and a hoop are seen walking in the foreground, along with a mother and son. The work is by James Fuller Queen, a Philadelphia lithographer and pioneer chromolithographer known for his attention to detail. Queen served in the ...

This print depicts the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, located at the southwest corner of Swanson and Washington Avenues in Philadelphia during the American Civil War. The saloon was a volunteer relief agency supported by the citizens of Philadelphia, which provided meals, hospital care, and washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, refugees, and freedmen throughout the war. The print shows soldiers, cheered by civilian onlookers, marching out from the main building to embark on cars of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad for transport to the battlefields to the ...

This print is a lively scene from November 1863 containing a view of the two hospitals, refreshment stand, and other buildings of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon located near the Navy Yard at Swanson and Washington Avenues in Philadelphia during the American Civil War. Situated at the transportation hub between the North and the South on land leased for free from the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, the saloon was a volunteer relief agency that provided meals, hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, refugees, and freedmen. It ...

The Great Central (or Sanitary) Fair took place in Philadelphia in June 1864. The purpose of the fair, which featured art, craft, and historical exhibits, was to raise funds for the United States Sanitary Commission. This was a private organization during the American Civil War, which operated under the authority of the federal government to provide relief to soldiers and assistance to the Union army in matters relating to health and hygiene. The commission played a major role in mobilizing civilian support for the Union cause and represented the largest ...

The Great Central Fair took place in Philadelphia in June 1864. The purpose of the fair, which featured art, craft, and historical exhibits, was to raise funds for the United States Sanitary Commission. This was a private organization that operated during the American Civil War under the authority of the federal government to provide relief to soldiers and assistance to the Union army in matters relating to health and hygiene. This print is a bird's-eye view of the exhibition grounds at Logan Square that was printed and for sale ...

This contribution certificate for the Citizens Volunteer Hospital Association shows a view of a street scene near the hospital, which was situated opposite the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad depot at the corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue in Philadelphia. On the sidewalk, American Civil War soldiers are seen conversing, pedestrians stroll, and a female peddler and vendor sell their goods and wares, including to a group of Zouaves. In the street, medical personnel and doctors accompany injured soldiers, by stretcher, foot, and on crutches toward the hospital. Horse-drawn carriages ...

This print is a bird's eye view of the Mower General Hospital, operated by the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. Built in 1862 after the designs of Philadelphia architect John McArthur, Jr., the hospital was located opposite the Chestnut Hill track of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The hospital received injured soldiers transported directly from the battlefield between January 1863 and May 1865. Designed as a pavilion to control the spread of infection, it consisted of hospital wards radiating from a central enclosed complex of administrative ...

The Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, was fought on July 1–3, 1863 near a small Pennsylvania town important for its many road and railroad connections. The Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee consisted of 72,000 men and was organized into corps commanded by Generals James Longstreet, Richard S. Ewell, and Ambrose P. Hill and a cavalry corps commanded by General J.E.B. “Jeb” Stuart. The Union army commanded by General George G. Meade had about 94,000 ...

This engraving by the American political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840–1902) celebrates the emancipation of Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War. Nast paints an optimistic picture of the future of free blacks in the United States. The central scene shows the interior of a freedman's home with the family gathered around a "Union" woodstove. The father bounces his small child on his knee while his wife and others look on. Between the mantel and the window hang a picture of Abraham Lincoln and a banjo. Below ...

This document represents the earliest of the five known drafts of what is probably the most famous American speech. Delivered by President Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of a memorial cemetery on November 19, 1863, it is now familiarly known as “The Gettysburg Address.” Drawing inspiration from his favorite historical document, the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln equated the catastrophic suffering caused by the Civil War (1861–65) with the efforts of the American people to live up to the proposition that “all men are created equal.” This ...